“Those who long for peace, must prepare for war.”
— Platoon motto of Secretary Pete Hegseth

That was the creed of the first platoon Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ever led—and it became the quiet current running beneath his 2025 Shangri-La Dialogue address this past Saturday in Singapore. But what followed wasn’t just a warfighter’s mantra. It was a redefinition of deterrence itself—not as provocation, but as posture. Not as power for its own sake, but as peace through principle.

“Your presence here today sends a strong message about our shared purpose, our shared commitment to peace, our shared dedication to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Hegseth’s message was clear—the United States is not stepping back from global leadership. The U.S. is stepping forward with clarity, humility, and composure. His speech did not reject strength, it reframed it. Not as the language of domination, but as the scaffolding of peace through shared purpose.

Calm-Assertive Posture

“We do not seek conflict with Communist China. We will not instigate nor seek to subjugate or humiliate... President Trump and the American people have immense respect for the Chinese people and their civilization.”

This wasn’t appeasement. This was deterrence without dehumanization—resolve without provocation. In those lines, Hegseth modeled a calm-assertive posture that rewires what strength sounds like in American statecraft. This was not the rhetoric of zero-sum power. It was the voice of a defense enterprise finally attuned to its moment, which is resolute yet respectful. Prepared, not provocative.